Inmate investigated for judge hit takes murder plea

Published 10:59 pm, Monday, April 29, 2013

A Bexar County Jail inmate who was investigated earlier this year — but never charged — in an alleged plot to kill a district judge pleaded no contest Monday to the murder case for which he originally was incarcerated.

Jury selection was set to begin Monday when he instead reached a plea agreement. Prosecutors will ask state District Judge Sid Harle for a prison term of no more than 40 years when he is sentenced in June.

Because Spaulding previously has been to prison on a drug charge, he will face a minimum 15-year term.

For most of the past two years, Spaulding's case had been pending before state District Judge Angus McGinty. It was transferred to a different courtroom earlier this year after an informant told authorities Spaulding had had paid a fellow inmate's $2,000 bail in exchange for McGinty's murder.

The judge was surrounded by a security detail for several days in February. But no attempt appears to have been made on his life, and authorities now say charges against Spaulding and the other man are unlikely unless new evidence surfaces.

“As soon as we got the accusation, we took immediate steps to protect the judge and then we investigated it,” sheriff's office spokesman Paul Berry said recently. “There just wasn't enough evidence to pursue making a charge.”

Authorities found Wildberger strangled with electrical cord and a dog leash in the flooded bathroom of his Northeast Side home. He also had been stabbed in the back and neck and received injuries from a blow to his forehead, investigators noted.

Spaulding was arrested days later, after authorities traced the victim's credit card back to him.

He eventually admitted to being present during the slaying but said he acted in self-defense.
ckapitan@express-news.net